flash drive manipulation

How do I manipulate the music files on my flash drive. I can't move the order around to change what sequence in which they play in my car stereo. Am I missing something simple...Duh!

Do I have to do it through a player like Windows Media Player?

 

Files stored on a hard or USB drive (such as .mp3) usually default to alphabetical order based on the raw file name (for example, "01 - ZZ Top - Legs" will appear at or near the top of the list based on "01" being the start of the file name).

When viewed in a basic Windows directory, you can change the sort method based on limited factors (such as the date the file was added). In Windows Media Player, you can sort by a few other factors such as artist, song length or favorites (star rating).

Since your car stereo isn't running Windows, I would check the stereo owner's manual to see if the stereo can read or use custom playlists you set up in Windows Media Player and/or allow any other type of sort method. Depending on the stereo, you may also be able to set up sub-folders on the drive (ABBA, ZZ Top, Grunge, Disco, etc.) to sort the music by artist or genre.

Finally, if your CD player supports .mp3, you could burn a data CD of .mp3 files in the order you want them to play (simply drag the files up or down the list before burning).

Hope this helps.

 

gman,

exactly the kind of detailed info. i was looking for...thank you

don't suppose you know anything about DVD burning software i.e., conversion, burning onto disc for home dvd, etc ???

 

Great advice from DavidGP

Before you start burning, check to see if your car stereo supports .mp3 and/or .wma files in addition to regular CDs.

If you convert music to and burn it as standard CD files (.wav files) you'll end up with a maximum of 80 minutes of music per disc.

If your player supports playback of .mp3 files (the default music format of most music downloads, except iTunes) and you do a "data disc" burn (.mp3 files not converted to ".wav"/CD format), you get 3-4 hours of tunes on one CD.

Also, use only write once (CD-R) dsics. Many drives not installed in a PC have problems playing rewritable (CD-RW) discs.